


A Family and a Team

by Lady_Sci_Fi



Series: A Life Together [10]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 14:49:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16599995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Sci_Fi/pseuds/Lady_Sci_Fi
Summary: The Fourth Doctor and Sarah are again visited by the Thirteenth Doctor, this time with her companions.





	A Family and a Team

Sarah ruffled her husband’s hair and got up to answer the knock on the door, expecting their family over soon. She checked her watch, and grinned that they were early.

 When she opened the door, it was not the expected people, but the new Doctor she had met a month ago, with three other people. Sarah’s smile widened.

 The Doctor rushed towards Sarah and tightly wrapped her arms around her. Sarah reciprocated, and giggled as the Doctor tried to pick her up. She didn’t get far up before the Doctor awkwardly set her back down.

 “You can’t do that as well anymore,” Sarah chuckled as they parted.

 “Well, that’s a bit annoying,” the Doctor huffed, though her mood was hardly dampened.

 Sarah’s Doctor came up behind his wife, a large smile also on his face. He shook hands with the other Doctor and stated, “It’s great to see you again.”

 The blonde Doctor clapped her hands together and glanced between Sarah and the younger Doctor and behind to her companions. “Right, introductions. Team, this is my wife, Sarah Jane Smith, and-“

 “Wait, your wife?”

 “You’re married? To her? No wonder Mum asked if we were seeing each other.”

 Sarah and her Doctor laughed lightly. “Doctor…” Sarah chided.

 “When I say my wife, I mean my wife, sort of,” the female Timelord corrected. “It takes a bit of explaining.” She tilted her head at Sarah and the other Doctor. “May we come in?”

 “Of course,” The brunette Doctor stepped aside. “We’re expecting company soon, but you’re certainly welcome to stay.”

 “Even better,” the blonde one replied, leading her companions inside.

 Sarah closed the door, and the introductions continued.

 “This is Yaz, Ryan, and Graham.”

 The younger Doctor and Sarah smiled, recognizing those names from the first time they had met her.

 “And as I was saying, this is Sarah Jane Smith and… well, the Doctor.”

 “Hold on, there’s two of you without a proper name? Both using Doctor, at that?” Graham asked.

 The younger Timelord chuckled. “I do go by John Smith when I need to.”

 “Go back to Sarah being your sort of wife?” Yaz requested.

 “Sarah Jane to you,” the blonde Doctor corrected before Sarah could. “Only I get to call her Sarah.” She glanced to Sarah, “Right?”

 Sarah nodded, then prompted, “Shall we all have a seat?”

 “You said you were taking us to see a couple close friends of yours,” Ryan said as everyone settled on the couches and chairs. “You didn’t mention anything about a spouse.”

 The older Doctor hummed. “That may have not been the best way to start this conversation.” She sat between the other Doctor and Sarah. “These two are close friends. Very close friends for a long time. They’re married to each other, and he’s a past version of me, whose been split off into his own timeline, and-”

 “Stop, before you confuse us any further,” Graham requested. “What do you mean he’s you?”

 The female Doctor sighed at the confusion on her companions’ faces. “Oh come on, I know I’ve mentioned regeneration to you. I know I told you when we met that I’d been a white-haired Scotsman half an hour before.”

 “You said a lot of things that night,” Ryan stated. “All of it sounding mad.”

 “Not to mention you’d just crashed through a train and were suffering from amnesia and physical trauma,” Yaz added.

 “You’re not having us on, are you?” Graham asked. At the shake of both Doctors’ heads, he sighed, “Just when I thought you couldn’t get any more confusing.”

 Sarah leaned forward. “To put it simply, because these two certainly won’t, she used to be him. Timelords get new bodies when the current one… dies, for lack of a better word. Same person with the same memories, different appearance and personality.”

 The other three glanced between both Doctors. Graham started, “But he’s very tall-“

 “A man-“ Ryan continued.

 “Blue-eyed-“ Yaz went on.

 “Yes, yes.” the blonde Doctor waved her hand. “We do look very different, but you never know what you’ll get with regeneration.”

 The brunette Timelord, for his part, seemed to be enjoying the confusion. “How long have they been with you?”

 “A good while. We’ve been to loads of places. Of all the strange things they’ve seen, they’re questioning this.”

 Sarah elbowed the nearest Timelord in the side. “Stop teasing. It took me a bit to understand regeneration, too.”

 Ryan tilted his head. “Hold on, if you’re supposed to be the same person, then shouldn’t you not meet each other or exist at the same time? That’s dangerous, isn’t it?”

 Both Doctors glanced to each other and shrugged. The older one answered, “I’ve met myselves loads of times, not counting the time when I lived in Bristol, as that white-haired Scotsman, and visited these two a lot.”

 “It’s a bit of an occupational hazard when you travel as much as we do,” the other one added.

 Yaz blew out a breath. “I think I’ve got all that. So, Sarah Jane is your sort of wife because a past you is married to her?”

 “Sort of. He didn’t marry her until I split him off into his own timeline, which means that I have no memory of being him after that point. Which… technically makes her not my wife.” The Doctor snorted. “Really shouldn’t have started with that.”

 Graham groaned. “I’m still lost.”

 Sarah chuckled lightly. “Don’t think about it too much right away,” she advised. “It’s a lot to take in all at once.”

 “You split him off of your timeline to be with her? That’s so sweet,” Yaz commented.

 “So, when did you meet the Doctor… your Doctor… whatever?” Ryan asked Sarah.

 The younger Timelord reached behind the other’s shoulders to pet the back of Sarah’s head. The blonde Doctor sighed and said, “Really? You could just ask me to move.” She didn’t make any motion to do so, and tilted her head onto Sarah’s shoulder. To her companions, she said, “Absolute lovebirds. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m sitting between them.”

 Sarah giggled, and grinned at the sound of the front door unlocking. She smiled at the group that came in with a few boxes of pizza.

 “Uh… hello?” Maria said first of the unexpected guests.

 “Good thing I decided to order that extra pizza,” Clyde remarked.

 “Pizza? I love pizza.” The older Doctor got up to help Clyde and Alan set them in the kitchen. “Did you get pineapple? I think I like that one best.”

 Rani raised her brows, “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a proper little party.”

 Luke put down the bags of bottled soda and went over to his mother and the Doctor. He kissed their cheeks. “Mum, Dad.”

 Graham, Yaz, and Ryan looked to each other and silently mouthed, “Dad?” 

 The blonde Doctor came back in with a slice of pizza in her mouth. “They got pineapple!” After Alan handed her a plate, she swallowed and grinned at Sarah and her husband. “I love your family. Even though I haven’t seen them much.”

 “I’m Maria Jackson,” Maria began the round of introductions as everyone grabbed food and drinks and settled in the living room.

 The older Doctor sat between Sarah’s feet on the floor, and was about to say who she was, but the younger one stopped her with, “We’ll tell you who she is a little later.”

 “Oh, mystery woman,” Clyde teased. “You’re not the first mystery person they’ve had over.”

Sarah finally got around to answering, “Ryan, I met the Doctor in 1974, but he didn’t look like this. He regenerated into this one about a year later.”

 “74?” Graham asked.

 The Doctor and Sarah glanced to each other with sly smiles, knowing where this was going.

 Graham continued, “You don’t look old enough to have met anyone in ’74.”

 “Hm… I don’t, do I?” Sarah took a sip of soda before stating, “I’m sixty-seven.”

 Graham, Ryan, and Yaz all froze in shock. Everyone else tried to hide their amusement. Ryan verbally responded first with, “Are you Human?”

 “I am,” Sarah answered. 

“She is,” the blonde Timelord added. “Well, mostly. She’s got a bit of me in her.” At the sniggering from the younger people, she asked, “What? Was that not the right way to word that?”

“She’s got some regeneration energy in her,” the brunette Doctor clarified.

 “You look… maybe late thirties? Forty at most?” Yaz said.

 “You’re telling us, mate,” Clyde said. “They came home from their honeymoon looking all young, no warning.”

 Maria cleared her throat. “I certainly wasn’t prepared for that.”

 “Alright, mystery woman, who are you, then?” Rani pushed to know.

 “I was the best man at their wedding,” the older Doctor stated.

 Maria’s eyes widened but she stayed silent, and the older Doctor winked at her.

 The blonde Doctor then turned to Sarah and her Doctor. “Oh, wait, were we still keeping that secret? Maybe I should’ve asked before I said that.”

 The younger Doctor shrugged. “We were keeping that secret for your benefit. If you don’t need that protection any more, that’s up to you.”

 “He was another Timelord, then?” Alan asked. “Didn’t realize Timelords could change that much.”

 The female Doctor took a measure of glee in this. “I’m not just any other Timelord.” She waited a few seconds to build up the suspense. “I’m the Doctor!”

 At the expressions of shock on the faces of Sarah’s family, Graham took a bite of pizza and remarked, “Oh good, now you know how we felt when she said that she used to be him.”

 “Wow…” Rani breathed.

 “But, you won’t become her, right?” Luke inquired of the younger Timelord.

 Both Doctors shook their heads in affirmation.

 “This is all madness,” Graham stated with a little nod. “Somehow, unexpected and expected.”

 Alan clapped his hand on the other man’s shoulder. “Welcome to the madness, my friend. I got into this through my daughter getting involved with Sarah Jane.”

 Maria teased, “You tried to be the responsible one of us all, though that didn’t last long.”

 “Are you the responsible one, then?” Rani asked Graham.

 “I try,” Graham sighed. “Hardly works out in that way.”

 “You weren’t being responsible when we rode on those manta rays,” the blonde Doctor teased.

 “Oh, come on. That’s not fair, Doc. Mine wasn’t listening to me,” Graham protested.

 “What kind of crazy adventures have you gotten into with your Doctor?” Yaz asked.

 Luke answered, “Most of that happened before he came back to be with Mum.”

 “You called him your dad earlier,” Ryan brought up. “Are you, like… half?”

 “That’s a hell of a can of worms there,” Clyde remarked.

 “I’m fully Human,” Luke answered. “I call him dad sometimes. He’s married to Mum, and he’s the closest thing I could ever have to a dad.” He turned to the other Doctor. “I hope you don’t mind if I don’t call you dad,” he joked.

 “That would be a bit weird, wouldn’t it?” the female Timelord shrugged.

 Maria started to answer the earlier question. “Yeah, we met Sarah Jane first, in 2007. Well, Rani wasn’t here yet, but the rest of us were. Dad and I had just moved in over the road…”

 The blonde Doctor relaxed back against Sarah, laying her head on her thigh. Sarah affectionately ruffled her hair before leaning into her Doctor, who wrapped his arm around her and kissed her temple. All three happily listened and joined in as the two groups told stories of their adventures. 

 

 Almost three hours later, the conversation was still going strong. The two Doctors and Sarah decided to excuse themselves. “Going out for some air,” Sarah said to everyone as they put on their jackets and left. No one commented on the way she held both of the Timelords’ hands.

 As soon as the door closed behind them, Graham remarked, “They’re quite a threesome, aren’t they.” At the stifled laughter, he added, “Not like that. I meant, no wonder she considers that Doctor and Sarah Jane her very close friends.”

 “I’m a bit miffed that they’ve been hanging out with another Doctor for years without telling us. The previous one, I mean,” Clyde said.

 They then resumed their conversation about their adventures.

 Outside, standing together in the back garden, Sarah said to the older Doctor, “We recently met Bill Potts.”

 “Bill?” the Doctor brought her hand up to her mouth in shock. “She… she’s alright, then?”

 “She is,” the younger Timelord assured.

 “It’s just… when I last saw her… I…”

 “We know,” Sarah softly said. “She told us everything.”

 “How did she… get away and… and…”

 “She said Heather came for her and restored her,” the other Doctor informed. “She said they’re settling down in Bristol together now.”

 “That’s… that’s so amazing! Thank you. I… wow… I’m so glad!” Her voice became hushed. “I thought I’d failed her, and when I met the Testimony Bill, I wasn’t sure what to think. I could only hope that was a good sign for her, but I couldn’t know, until now.” She took a deep breath. “That lifts some weight from my chest. Maybe I’ll see her again sometime.”

 “She’d love that,” Sarah agreed.

 The younger Doctor pulled both women to the bench. He sat up lengthways, stretching his legs out along it. Sarah sat between his legs, with her back against his front. The other Doctor sat between Sarah’s legs with her legs over the edge. Sarah held her hand, and she eventually leaned over until she was lying sideways on the other woman.

 Sarah’s fingers absentmindedly stroked through the blonde hair resting on her chest. The Doctor behind her lowered his nose to her hair and rested a hand on her abdomen.

 They were content simply sitting there in a comfortable intimate quiet, listening to the muffled excited conversation of the people inside and enjoying the night sky and light breeze.

 A little while later, the female Doctor raised her head to look at Sarah. “Would you mind if I kissed you?” she asked with a nervous tone. “It’s just… I’ve been wanting to, and… and I wouldn’t ask again whether you let me or not.”

 Sarah laughed lightly and smiled sincerely. She glanced up to see her Doctor, who shrugged his acceptance. Sarah turned her gaze back to the other Doctor and nodded.

 The blonde Timelord pushed herself up, and tenderly moved her hand up the side of Sarah’s neck and jawline until it caressed her cheek. Sarah tilted her face to make it easier for the Doctor to reach her mouth, and she smiled at the lips that touched her cheek, then the side of her mouth.

 The Doctor withdrew, a shy little smile on her face.

 Sarah encouraged, “You can do it more if you want.”

 That was all the encouragement the other woman needed to kiss Sarah again, this time fully on the mouth. Sarah closed her eyes, and responded with a slight pressure of her own. It was strange, but in a pleasant way. This new Doctor certainly felt different from her Doctor, with the smaller hand caressing her face and smaller nose nudging hers. The short straight hair lightly brushed across her other cheek.

 When the Doctor pulled away again, she giggled a little. “Thanks, I’m good now.” She looked up to the man with a teasing grin. “If you’re feeling a bit left out, I could kiss you, too.”

 “Hm… what an unexpected offer… one that I’ll refuse.”

 All three of them laughed, and the female Timelord settled back down on Sarah. Sarah said, “It was nice, but I think that’s all you’ll get.”

 The blonde Doctor happily sighed. “I love spending time with you two.” A collective laugh from inside made her smile. “And that your family and my team get along so well.”

 “You’re all welcome over any time,” the younger Doctor said.

 “Thank you,” the blonde woman said, wrapping her arms around Sarah’s waist and snuggling in a little more.

 The brunette Doctor lifted his outside leg to wrap around the lower half of the two women.

 

 A couple hours after the two Timelords and Sarah came inside, everyone found a place to sleep. The three of them looked in on their companions in the living room and family in Luke’s room before heading to the married couple’s room to sleep.


End file.
